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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
Varner challenges the assumption that animal rights theory and anthropocentric views are at odds with each other. He attempts to reconcile them by arguing that every living organism has interests which ought to be protected, but that some interests--particularly those belonging to sentient animals with conscious desires--are more important than others. The author is not unduly influenced by radical or conservative environmental positions and effectively establishes an individualistic and accessible framework that will be given credence by both camps. In Nature's Interests? is a necessary read for any serious environmental philosopher and is a valuable addition to the current literature on moral considerability.
'Clever, compelling, canine and utterly mesmerising' - Helen
Lederer Stupendo the dog has died. But that's just the beginning of
his story. To love and protect. The code of the good dog is clear.
When single mother Tuesday took on mongrel pup Stupendo, she made a
friend for life. Through the best and the worst of times, Stupendo
has been there for her. Ever faithful, ever loyal, ever true.
Nothing could break their bond. Until last week. Stupendo doesn't
know why Tuesday is suddenly ignoring him or why his doggy antics
no longer seem to soothe Baby William. It takes his worst enemy -
the cat next door - to break the news that Stupendo has become a
ghost. Somehow left behind on Earth, Stupendo knows he has
unfinished business. Enlisting the help of the community of animals
in the neighbourhood, Stupendo must get to the bottom of the very
human sadness that hangs over his old home and keeps him from
saying goodbye to Tuesday. Praise for SAYING GOODBYE TO TUESDAY:
'An emotional, lovely read, just perfect for animal lovers. It was
a joy to read, although have tissues handy' - Rachel Wells,
bestselling author of Alfie the Doorstep Cat 'Pawfection. It's
emotional and joyful and utterly compelling' - Alex Brown 'A
gorgeous, ingenious story' - Amanda Brookfield 'This isn't just a
story about a dog, it's a story about the very meaning of life,
told from a unique and bold perspective. Filled with joyful
bittersweetness and clear-eyed wisdom it made me both laugh and cry
and its message of hope will stay with me for a long time to come'
- Alexandra Potter
Mary Anne Warren investigates a theoretical question that is at the centre of practical and professional ethics: what are the criteria for having moral status? That is: what does it take to be an entity towards which people have moral considerations? Warren argues that no single property will do as a sole criterion, and puts forward seven basic principles which establish moral status. She then applies these principles to three controversial moral issues: voluntary euthanasia, abortion, and the status of non-human animals.
A far-reaching, urgent, and thoroughly engaging exploration of our
relationship with animals - from the acclaimed Financial Times
journalist. This might be the worst time in history to be an
animal. But is there a happier way? Factory farms, climate change,
deforestation and pandemics have made our relationship with the
other species unsustainable. In response, Henry Mance sets out on a
personal quest to see if there is a fairer way to live alongside
the animals we love. He goes to work in an abattoir and on a farm
to investigate the reality of eating meat and dairy. He explores
our dilemmas around over-fishing the seas, visiting zoos and owning
pets, and he meets the chefs, activists, scientists and tech
visionaries who are redefining how we think about animals. A Times
Book of the Year
"Interspecies Ethics" explores animals' vast capacity for
agency, justice, solidarity, humor, and communication across
species. The social bonds diverse animals form provide a remarkable
model for communitarian justice and cosmopolitan peace, challenging
the human exceptionalism that drives modern moral theory. Situating
biosocial ethics firmly within coevolutionary processes, this
volume has profound implications for work in social and political
thought, contemporary pragmatism, Africana thought, and continental
philosophy.
"Interspecies Ethics" develops a communitarian model for
multispecies ethics, rebalancing the overemphasis on competition in
the original Darwinian paradigm by drawing out and stressing the
cooperationist aspects of evolutionary theory through mutual aid.
The book's ethical vision offers an alternative to utilitarian,
deontological, and virtue ethics, building its argument through
rich anecdotes and clear explanations of recent scientific
discoveries regarding animals and their agency. Geared toward a
general as well as a philosophical audience, the text illuminates a
variety of theories and contrasting approaches, tracing the
contours of a postmoral ethics.
The pigeon is the quintessential city bird. Domesticated thousands
of years ago as a messenger and a source of food, its presence on
our sidewalks is so common that people consider the bird a nuisance
- if they notice it at all. Yet pigeons are also kept by people all
over the world for pleasure, sport, and profit, from the "pigeon
wars" waged by breeding enthusiasts in the skies over Brooklyn to
the Million Dollar Pigeon Race held every year in South Africa.
Drawing on more than three years of fieldwork across three
continents, Colin Jerolmack traces our complex and often
contradictory relationship with these versatile animals in public
spaces such as Venice's Piazza San Marco and London's Trafalgar
Square and in working-class and immigrant communities of pigeon
breeders in New York and Berlin. By exploring what he calls "the
social experience of animals," Jerolmack shows how our interactions
with pigeons offer surprising insights into city life, community,
culture, and politics. Theoretically understated and accessible to
interested readers of all stripes, "The Global Pigeon" is one of
the best and most original ethnographies to be published in
decades.
Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London tells the remarkable
story of Obaysch the hippopotamus, the first 'star' animal to be
exhibited in the London Zoo. In 1850, a baby hippopotamus arrived
in England, thought to be the first in Europe since the Roman
Empire, and almost certainly the first in Britain since prehistoric
times. Captured near an island in the White Nile, Obaysch was
donated by the viceroy of Egypt in exchange for greyhounds and
deerhounds. His arrival in London was greeted with a wave of
'hippomania', doubling the number of visitors to the Zoological
Gardens almost overnight. Delving into the circumstances of
Obaysch's capture and exhibition, John Simons investigates the
phenomenon of 'star' animals in Victorian Britain against the
backdrop of an expanding British Empire. He shows how the entangled
aims of scientific exploration, commercial ambition, and imperial
expansion shaped the treatment of exotic animals throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Along the way, he
uncovers the strange and moving stories of Obaysch and the other
hippos who joined him in Europe as the trade in zoo animals grew.
'A fascinating microscopic and telescopic look at the life of
Victorian England's most famous animal. John Simons' richly
exhaustive account of nineteenth-century hippomania engages with
imperialism, Orientalism, progress, and the cultural history of
Europe where Obaysch, captured from an island in the Nile River,
had the misfortune to spend his life as a blockbuster attraction at
the London Zoo. Poignant and empathetic, this account of an
animal's appropriation and exploitation is one of those books that
unfurls more about its moment in time than you could have imagined
when you picked it up.' Professor Randy Malamud, Georgia State
University
From Jack London to Aldo Leopold's "fierce green fire," wolves have
been a central part of the American image. Many have even suggested
that our national symbol, the bald eagle, be replaced with this
noble creature who, like us, raises a family and is bold and loyal
in protecting the pack. Brenda Peterson blends science, history,
and memoir to dramatize the epic battle to restore wolves and thus
the landscape and ecology of the continent. From the vicious
exterminations carried out by pioneers and settlers; to the
internationally celebrated triumph of the return of wolves to
Yellowstone; to backlash, politics, and near-daily news of
successful reintroductions, this is perhaps the most inspiring
conservation story of our time. Brenda's central characters are two
famous wolves: the powerful and prolific female "067," restored to
Yellowstone only to be "legally" murdered, and Journey, a
near-miraculous transcontinental survivor. Along with these are the
scientists, ranchers, and activists who are fighting against fear,
politics, greed, and scientific ignorance to bring wild wolves home
to keep our environment whole.
A fascinating and unprecedented ethnography of animal sanctuaries
in the United States In the past three decades, animal rights
advocates have established everything from elephant sanctuaries in
Africa to shelters that rehabilitate animals used in medical
testing, to homes for farmed animals, abandoned pets, and
entertainment animals that have outlived their "usefulness." Saving
Animals is the first major ethnography to focus on the ethical
issues animating the establishment of such places, where animals
who have been mistreated or destined for slaughter are allowed to
live out their lives simply being animals. Based on fieldwork at
animal rescue facilities across the United States, Elan Abrell asks
what "saving," "caring for," and "sanctuary" actually mean. He
considers sanctuaries as laboratories where caregivers conceive and
implement new models of caring for and relating to animals. He
explores the ethical decision making around sanctuary efforts to
unmake property-based human-animal relations by creating spaces in
which humans interact with animals as autonomous subjects. Saving
Animals illustrates how caregivers and animals respond by
cocreating new human-animal ecologies adapted to the material and
social conditions of the Anthropocene. Bridging anthropology with
animal studies and political philosophy, Saving Animals asks us to
imagine less harmful modes of existence in a troubled world where
both animals and humans seek sanctuary.
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Crab
(Paperback)
Cynthia Chris
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R417
R339
Discovery Miles 3 390
Save R78 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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What is a crab? What significance do crabs play in the world? In
Crab, Cynthia Chris discovers that these charming creatures are
social by nature, creative problem-solvers, and invaluable members
of the environments in which they live. Their formidable physical
forms, their hard-to-harvest and quick-to-spoil flesh, and their
sassy demeanour have inspired artists and writers from Vincent van
Gogh to Jean-Paul Sartre. Cynthia Chris sketches vivid portraits of
these animals, tracing the history of the crab through its ancient
fossil record to its essential role in protecting its own habitats
from the threat of climate change.
Understanding the relationships between humans and animals is
essential to a full understanding of both our present and our
shared past. Across the humanities and social sciences, researchers
have embraced the 'animal turn,' a multispecies approach to
scholarship, with historians at the forefront of new research in
human-animal studies that blends traditional research methods with
interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks that decenter humans in
historical narratives. These exciting approaches come with core
methodological challenges for scholars seeking to better understand
the past from non-anthropocentric perspectives.Whether in a large
public archive, a small private collection, or the oral histories
of living memories, stories of animals are mediated by the humans
who have inscribed the records and organized archival collections.
In oral histories, the place of animals in the past are further
refracted by the frailty of human memory and recollection. Only
traces remain for researchers to read and interpret. Bringing
together seventeen original essays by a leading group of
international scholars, Traces of the Animal Past showcases the
innovative methods historians use to unearth and explain how
animals fit into our collective histories. Situating the historian
within the narrative, bringing transparency to methodological
processes, and reflecting on the processes and procedures of
current research, this book presents new approaches and new
directions for a maturing field of historical inquiry.
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